Shingles Treatment in NYC

The risk of developing shingles grows with age. Nearly a third of us will develop it in our lifetime. While there’s no guaranteed way to prevent the disease, its severity can be lessened by prompt treatment.

Shingles – What causes shingles?

Larry Jaeger notes that shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, which is in the herpes family of viruses. It first appears as chickenpox and, like genital herpes, it never goes away.

Once someone has had chickenpox – or even the chickenpox vaccine, which contains the live virus – the virus sleeps in the roots of some nerves, often for decades, before awakening and reappearing as shingles.

The shingles rate is gradually increasing. While the CDC says it doesn’t know the reason, some experts have theories. The CDC, however, says that the increase began before the United States began vaccinating children.

Who’s at risk for shingles?

Shingles often strikes when people are in their 50s, but about half of the cases occur among those 60 and older, a group that’s also more likely to endure a shingles complication called post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). Affecting a third of those who get shingles after age 59, it results in pain or numbness that can last for months and sometimes years. That’s why doctors recommend that people get a shingles vaccine once they turn 60 years old.

Shingles Diagnosis:

According to Larry Jaeger, the most common early symptoms of shingles are itching, tingling or pain, followed by an angry red rash along the nerve path traveled by the virus – often across the torso, sometimes along the arm or leg. It may feel like a sunburn, or worse.

The rash sometimes emerges on the forehead or tip of the nose, which is alarming because it can then involve the eye; if it does progress to the eye, it can cause vision loss.

Even though it’s far more likely to strike later in life, shingles also takes plenty of younger people by surprise.

Shingles – Treatment Options

Zostavax, a weakened but live form of the chickenpox virus, is licensed by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce the risk of shingles in people age 50 and older.

But CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends it only for those 60 and older, a guideline followed by most doctors. A clinical trial found that for people 60 and older, the vaccine cut their risk of developing shingles by about half and, maybe most important, their risk of PHN by 67 percent.

Even if you are sure you haven’t had chickenpox, CDC recommends the vaccination if you’re in the 60-and-older group. The vast majority of Americans born before the chickenpox vaccine was approved in 1995 have been exposed to the chickenpox virus, though some may not recall having symptoms as children.

And the CDC advises vaccination even for those who have had shingles, to decrease the chance of recurrence.